Memory lapse an early warning of Alzheimer’s
Doctors who tell their aging patients not to fret about memory lapses may be doing them a disservice, according to new studies that suggest these slips may be the earliest discernible signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
The condition, dubbed subjective cognitive decline, is one of the hottest new areas in dementia research. Five reports presented at the U.S. Alzheimer’s Association meeting in Boston found healthy people who say their thinking is growing cloudy may already have changes in their brains and are twice as probable to be subsequently diagnosed with a cognitive disorder.
For years, people have complained about their memories and doctors have told them not to worry, said Creighton Phelps, acting director of the dementias of aging branch at the U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA). It’s being taken more seriously as an early warning signal, and gives investigators a potential screening tool to identify those who will progress more quickly, he said.
“The hardest part is deciding what is normal aging and what’s abnormal,” said Phelps, who wasn’t involved in the research. “We all lose our car keys. We’ve been doing that all our lives. If you forget how to use a key or you find it in the refrigerator, that should make you stop and think.”
The results have immediate applications for researchers who are beginning studies aimed at slowing or stopping Alzheimer’s disease before full-blown symptoms appear, said researcher Rebecca Amariglio, a neuropsychologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Amariglio and her colleagues developed a survey with more than 100 questions and gave it to 189 healthy volunteers with no history of neurological disease. They also scanned their brains for amyloid, a protein that builds up in Alzheimer’s disease patients. Participants who reported the most concern with their memory, or who started struggling with mental activities like prioritizing tasks, had the most amyloid, the study found.
“People’s self-reports about their memory may be an early indicator of disease, well before other tests,” Amariglio said in a telephone interview. “These results shouldn’t scare people, so that if they have minor blips in their everyday lives they get freaked out,” she said.
People who notice a change in themselves or their loved ones should get a health checkup, said Heather Snyder, director of medical and scientific operations at the Alzheimer’s Association. The signs may be different for everyone and the key is looking for trouble in what used to be normal patterns.
“If it seems like it is getting in the way of your life, and it’s worrying you, get it checked out,” said the NIA’s Phelps. “Even if you test positive, you still have a number of years. People with Alzheimer’s disease can still function, even if not as well as they once could. Perhaps you go to a simpler lifestyle that isn’t so demanding and enjoy the time you have.”